Headlines

AP

The first Hindu member of Congress

Hinduism encompasses a range of beliefs and practices, and there is no formal conversion practice. That acceptance of plurality in the faith, that Hindus come in many forms, would make it “hypocritical” for Indian Hindus to look askance at Gabbard for not sharing their ethnicity, said Smita Kothuri, 38, of McLean, Va.

“How can I hold it against her? I’d be untrue to my religion if I held it against her,” she said.

Other Indian Hindus agreed with the sentiment.

“I don’t think it makes a difference that she’s not Indian,” said Kinjal Dave, 17, a high school senior in Hillsborough, N.J. “I think it’s the faith that matters.”

The press secretary for Gabbard, a 31-year-old Iraq war veteran, declined an Associated Press request to interview Gabbard for this story, but sent along a statement Gabbard had made upon being sworn into office, for which she used a copy of the Bhagavad Gita, a Hindu religious text.

I thought it is interesting there has been 3 Indian-American in congress and none Hindu, now the first Hindu is white. Since usually the Venn diagram of Hindu and Indian would be for the most part almost entirely overlapping based on the statistics in the article.

I also thought it was cool that the quoted Hindis in the article didn’t seem to give a rip the color of her skin.

First of all Buddhism is non-theistic, while Hinduism is theistic. That would seem a fairly significant difference, don’t you think?

DarkCurrent on January 13, 2013 at 8:18 PM

Buddhists aren’t necessary atheists. Plenty believe in a God, even if it’s an impersonal God. And Hindu Advaita Vedanta, or unqualified non-dualism, similarly believes in an impersonal God, for example, such that the individual soul and the universe soul are the same thing — no separation between God and Man.

Then we have similar spiritual practices in them both such as meditation, an open/peaceful attitude towards those of other faiths, and as I suggested before, that each person has their own valid spiritual path. So many people, so many paths. Practically speaking, I see substantial similarities between the two.

Buddhists aren’t necessary atheists. Plenty believe in a God, even if it’s an impersonal God. And Hindu Advaita Vedanta, or unqualified non-dualism, similarly believes in an impersonal God, for example, such that the individual soul and the universe soul are the same thing — no separation between God and Man.

Then we have similar spiritual practices in them both such as meditation, an open/peaceful attitude towards those of other faiths, and as I suggested before, that each person has their own valid spiritual path. So many people, so many paths. Practically speaking, I see substantial similarities between the two.

Paul-Cincy on January 13, 2013 at 8:28 PM

They have some similarities due to their historical relationship, but they are certainly not ‘substantially the same’ anymore than Judaism and Mormonism are ‘substantially the same’.